Vanessa-Mae music's richest

Saturday, April 22, 2006

London (Reuters): Electric violinist Vanessa-Mae Nicholson, famed for her wet T-shirt album covers as much as her music, was named today as Britain's wealthiest young entertainer in the Sunday Times' annual rich list. The 27-year-old, Singapore-born violinist, a new entry in the millionaires' chart, was worth 32 million pounds thanks to album sales and concert revenues, according to the paper. Second in the list of young entertainers aged under 30 was Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter Kiera, who has a 30 per cent stake in the Hollywood production company Limelight Films. The 23-year-old is worth 30 million pounds. Third place was shared by the four members of the rock supergroup Coldplay who were valued at 25 million pounds each.

In its overall list of music millionaires, the Sunday Times gave top place to Clive Calder, the former record label boss of Britney Spears. Calder, valued at 1.3 billion pounds, made most of his money selling his Zomba label to BMG in 2002. Second in the music millionaires' list was former Beatle Paul McCartney. Other rock veterans to make the Top 10 were Mick Jagger, Elton John, Tom Jones and Sting. The film and television millionaires list was strictly no contest. The paper said JK Rowling has amassed a 520 million pound fortune with her Harry Potter books, putting her 220 million pounds ahead of former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller, whose fortune was swelled by the huge success of the X-Factor TV talent show.